As anyone with a player piano can tell you, There are three kinds of
rolls: the ones that sit on top of the player and are played often,
and then the "blah" ones that are in the back room somewhere.  The
"in between" ones are in the roll cabinet.

Everyone's musical tastes vary.  I'd also like to point out that a "blah"
arranged roll will sound much different on a Ampico or Duo-Art with the
proper coding.

A fellow in New York showed this to me.  On a Duo-Art without expression
the roll sounded terrible, but with the Duo-Art turned on the arrangement
came to life!

Many times I have had a roll cut that sounded great on the sound card,
but terrible on a player roll.  Maybe I will put them in my "disaster
series"!  :-)

I think all old rolls that are playable should be kept.  To me piano
rolls are a learning tool.  Quite often, there is a musical "trick" to be
learned.  Some of these old rolls are remarkable and took great work and
expense.  They didn't have Midi or sheet music scanners.

I am not a professional roll arranger.  There is much for me to learn;
the primary one is jockeying around with the record tempo and dealing with
note lengths to play properly on a pneumatic action.  Sadly there is not
much written on the subject so experience will be my teacher.  But it is
very satisfying to get "great music" e-mails, and If I can get just one
smile when a old player belts out one of my numbers, It makes it all
worthwhile.  With any luck I will learn this art.

Andy Taylor
Missouri